Falling dollar to help auto industry: govt

Dr Emerson said the Australian dollar, which this month slipped below parity with the US dollar, has increased the competitiveness of Australian industry.

He said Ford, unlike Holden which had identified production out to at least 2022, lacked an export strategy.

"It's really been the high dollar that has made those exports not competitive against other countries' exports. The dollar coming down is a good thing. That effectively provides pretty powerful assistance, if you like, to the automotive industry," he told ABC television.

Dr Emerson said Ford had concentrated almost exclusively on the Australian domestic market of just 23 million people, very small compared with the billions in the region, North America and Europe.

"Because of that the scale of production is much smaller, somewhere between 30 and 40,000 cars per annum. Compare that with Holden and Toyota which are around 90,000 cars per annum because they do have export strategies," he said.

However, Ford had created an international research facility in Victoria which employed 1100 people.